Evidence of Beagle 2 probe found on Mars?

The scientists behind the project think Beagle 2 is "very much intact" after its landing on Mars (Image: Reuters/ESA)

The British scientist behind the lost 2003 Beagle 2 mission to Mars says evidence of the craft may have been spotted in NASA pictures.

Beagle 2, named after the ship Charles Darwin sailed in when he formulated his theory of evolution, was built by scientists for about 50 million British pounds (US$90 million) and taken to Mars aboard the European Space Agency's orbiter Mars Express.

It was due to land in a crater on the red planet in a bouncing ball of airbags and begin looking for signs of life on Christmas Day, 2003. But it lost contact with Earth once it separated from the mother ship in mid-December that year.

Professor Colin Pillinger of the Open University in Milton Keynes says he thinks the craft may have hit the ground too hard, damaging its instruments, because the atmosphere was thinner than usual due to dust storms.

But he doesn't believe the craft is wrecked.

"We are actually thinking that is very much intact," he says.

Clues from Mars Global Surveyor images

Pillinger says clues about the fate of the Beagle' are contained in NASA Mars Global Surveyor images of a crater close to the intended landing site, in a near-equatorial region called Isidis Planitia.

"There is a lot of disturbance in this crater, particularly a big patch on the north crater wall which we think is the primary impact site," Pillinger says.

"There are then other features around the crater consistent with the airbags bouncing around and finally falling down into the middle. Then, when you cut the lace, the airbags fall apart giving three very symmetrical triangles."

Four roughly circular features to the right of the 'airbag' markings could be Beagle's unfolded solar panels, he says.

Project came close to working

Pillinger says the findings, if correct, showed the project came very close to working but had failed because it had landed in a "sideways motion" instead of a "horizontal mode".

"That may have damaged the lander so the lid didn't open properly and didn't release the antennae, so we couldn't get the signal," he says.